This invention relates to a protective glove with web members disposed across the crotch region between adjacent fingers for improved comfort, stress relief, and wear.
Metal mesh gloves are used inter alia, to protect a butcher""s hands and forearms against knife cuts and the like.
Prior art metal mesh gloves, however, have fingers joined together by a V-shaped crotch region. In contrast, the crotch region between adjacent fingers of the human hand is more of a U-shape.
Therefore, the V-shaped crotch region between adjacent fingers of prior art metal mesh gloves cause discomfort to the wearer especially when the wearer places the shank of a meat hook between his gloved index and middle fingers and uses the meat hook to forcibly retrieve heavy meat sections for butchering. The repeated frictional contact between the metal rings of the mesh glove and the shank of the meat hook also causes wear, reduces the useful life, and can even destroy the V-shaped crotch regions of the metal mesh glove.
When the crotch region between adjacent fingers of an employee""s hand becomes irritated, some employees will also cut out the V-shaped crotch region of the protective metal mesh glove resulting in a glove with unacceptable protection which supervisors ordinarily must repair or discard.
Other employees sometimes purposefully choose a protective metal mesh glove with fingers longer than the employee""s fingers. The metal mesh of the glove then bunches up at the crotch region providing some additional comfort and stress relief This practice, however, results in an improperly fitted protective glove and glove fingers which sag due to the effects of gravity when the employee""s hand is in any position other than vertically up in the air.
Those skilled in the art of metal mesh glove manufacturing and design have attempted to overcome these problems with limited success by eliminating the seam of adjoining metal mesh rings between the adjacent fingers of the glove but still the gloves have a V-shaped crotch region between adjacent fingers which does not conform to the U-shaped cross regions of the human hand.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a protective metal mesh glove that is more comfortable.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a protective glove which has a U-shaped crotch region rather than a V-shaped crotch region.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a glove which has an increased wearable life and an increased mean time between failures.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a protective metal mesh glove which more nearly conforms to the shape of the human hand.
This invention results from the realization that the discomfort, stress points, and the practice of users either wearing a cotton glove and/or removing the V-shaped crotch region associated with prior art metal mesh protective gloves can be eliminated by the incorporation of a metal mesh xe2x80x9ccradlexe2x80x9d sewn between adjacent fingers of the glove thereby improving the comfort level of the glove, especially when meat hooks are used, since the cradle protects the user""s hand from the shank of the meat hook, and thereby also increases the wearable life of the glove and the mean time between failures of metal mesh protective gloves.
This invention features a protective glove comprising a plurality of fingers made of metal mesh material, adjacent fingers defining a crotch region therebetween; and a plurality of web members each disposed across a crotch region joining adjacent fingers together providing a U-shaped cradle for improved comfort, stress relief, and wear.
In the preferred embodiment, the plurality of web members are made of metal mesh material and there are four fingers and three web members, one web member disposed between each pair of fingers. Typically, the web members are diamond shaped and folded over at the crotch region.
This invention also features a method of manufacturing a protective glove, the method comprising forming two half glove sections of metal mesh material, each section including a plurality of finger portions, adjacent fingers defining a crotch region therebetween; securing the two half glove sections together by joining the metal mesh material together at the periphery of the two sections; fabricating metal mesh material web members; and inserting a web member across each crotch region and joining adjacent fingers together by linking each web member to each crotch region between adjacent fingers.
The fabricating step usually includes making a diamond shaped metal mesh material web member and the step of inserting includes folding the diamond shaped metal mesh material web member in half to form a triangle, one side of which extends across a crotch region.
In some embodiments, only one web member disposed across the crotch region joining two adjacent fingers together providing a U-shaped crotch region between the index finger and the middle finger forming a cradle for the shank of a meat hook.